Goverment Cut 40% fuel supply may hit Armyâ€™s mobility

The countryâ€™s 13.3 lakh-strong Army, which is the worldâ€™s second largest standing Army next only to the Chinese PLA, may face mobility issues in the coming days following a reported move by the Centre to effect a 40 per cent cut in the fuel, oil and lubricants -- called FOL in defence parlance -- supplies to the Armed Forces.

Military sources attributed it to an audit recommendation, which also resulted in lower allocation in the 2013-14 Defence Budget.

In fact,the Army relies on oil marketing companies (OMC) like the Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum for its fuel, oil and lubricant supplies, besides the Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) for its aircraft.

â€œThe cut in the fuel, oil and lubricants, is estimated to be around 40 per cent this year,â€ an Army officer told Express.

â€œThis could only mean that there will less movement of the convoys and lesser training sessions for the troopers, considering that the nearly 30,000 light vehicles such as jeeps and cars, 10,000 trucks, 4,200 armoured tanks, 1,900 infantry combat vehicles and the 6,600 artillery gun vehicles depend on FOL for their mobility,â€ the officer, posted at the Army headquarters (HQ), pointed out.

His concern in this regard was confirmed by the Army officers posted on the ground.

The Army receives the FOL supplies from the OMCs at over 100 locations across the country, while the IAF and the Navy get it from the 50-odd and 10-odd locations respectively.

And the Armed Forcesâ€™ FOL requirements include petrol, diesel, LPG, superior kerosene oil and other lubricants.

The Union Ministry of Defence (MoD) pays the full market price to the OMCs for the supplies as they are not provided with any subsidies unlike the civilian sector.

Meanwhile, this yearâ€™s Budgetary estimates for FOL clearly show the impact of the cuts that have been effected.

The Armyâ€™s revised Budgetary estimates for 2012-13 for petrol alone was Rs 193 crore, but it has been allocated only Rs 160crore for 2013-14, which means a slash of nearly Rs 33 crore.

Similarly, the Armyâ€™s revised Budget last year for diesel was Rs 755crore, but this yearâ€™s Budgetary allocation came to only Rs 730crore, again a cut of Rs 25crore.

While the total revised estimates for FOL last year was Rs 1,775crore, the Army got only `1,738 crore for 2013-14. In comparison, the 90,000-strong Navyâ€™s Budgetary allocation this year towards FOL is slightly better than the Armyâ€™s.

By the text of the release, it appears that Those vehicle figures represent only those vehicles that depend on FOL for supplies. It is well known that the IA holds as many as 70,000 stallions alone, whereas here the figure for all the trucks is 10,000, when even the TATRA trucks are around 7,000.

@DivineHeretic at least now i can have dream of providing every truck, jeep or BMP with common remote weapon station.

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You want to install 70,000+30,000+4200+1900=106,100 RCWS? Sure...line them up on China Border.

Assuming a firing rate of 600rpm and accuracy 1%, in a minute we will have killed/wounded/disabled 62,000 PLA troops.
Its just a comical take btw. But does give you an idea of a wall of lead the PLA will have to come up against, if IA have proper MGs, and by MGs I mean RCWS, the Minigun and the 12.7mm/.50cal HMGs in adequate nos. They are a different force multipliers for ground fighting forces, especially if CAS is very difficult to execute

India should start production of biodiesel so as to reduce cost since we are buying more naval ships and military vehicles for our Armed forces in the coming future. What would happen if our jawans guarding our borders don't get basic supplies due to shortage in fuel supply? As an Indian we should be ashamed to call ourselves superpower.

You want to install 70,000+30,000+4200+1900=106,100 RCWS? Sure...line them up on China Border.

Assuming a firing rate of 600rpm and accuracy 1%, in a minute we will have killed/wounded/disabled 62,000 PLA troops.
Its just a comical take btw. But does give you an idea of a wall of lead the PLA will have to come up against, if IA have proper MGs, and by MGs I mean RCWS, the Minigun and the 12.7mm/.50cal HMGs in adequate nos. They are a different force multipliers for ground fighting forces, especially if CAS is very difficult to execute

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idea is to have common remote control weapon station, with the weapon used by regular soldiers, nothing special, like INSAS LMG with drum magazine, Grenade launcher etc. Wont cost that much if you have to make it in numbers. Plus it will serve as additional two things, first it will give additional tools for recon and watch activity remotely, second it can be used by drive to drive at night.

India should start production of biodiesel so as to reduce cost since we are buying more naval ships and military vehicles for our Armed forces in the coming future. What would happen if our jawans guarding our borders don't get basic supplies due to shortage in fuel supply? As an Indian we should be ashamed to call ourselves superpower.

Biodiesel is a domestically produced, renewable fuel that can be manufactured from vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled restaurant grease for use in diesel vehicles. Biodiesel's physical properties are similar to those of petroleum diesel, but it is a cleaner-burning alternative. Using biodiesel in place of petroleum diesel reduces emissions.

Considering that 37 crores has been cut from 1775, that will be around 2% cut. Assuming that we replace 10% of the vehicles every year and again assuming that the replaced vehicle fuel efficiency goes up by around 20% compared to the old one, that gets us in a position to manage the cut without cutting the activities. Also, the market prices have been pretty eased out compared to the last year i guess. All of these are assumptions only. If anyone has actual figures, that would be helpful to analyse.

All this only shows that we have yet to get a proper strategic thinking in place for the military forces. Every democratic country has to face issues of civilian and ministirial priorities intruding on defence needs. After all this is not war time. So like russia, USA etc we should have already planned a depot and silos for storing many gallons of fuel that can run the countries armed forces for atleast a few months. This is culture of planning for the future is lacking in all spheres of life in India ..right from building houses to laying roads

All this only shows that we have yet to get a proper strategic thinking in place for the military forces. Every democratic country has to face issues of civilian and ministirial priorities intruding on defence needs. After all this is not war time. So like russia, USA etc we should have already planned a depot and silos for storing many gallons of fuel that can run the countries armed forces for atleast a few months. This is culture of planning for the future is lacking in all spheres of life in India ..right from building houses to laying roads

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For one it's been dem-o-crazy who think this or other countries really democracy they just facade. But otherwise, I think culturally we don't like soft stereotype so we stay away from math?

Above post is good point, I hate that much stuff to think would rather just shoot. But, that's why there's more than one person in the country.

We should make bio-diesel, but food/fuel security should really be a priority for us.

We are a food exporter, but also the world' hungriest with our most productive state riddled in drugs, and slowly becoming a desert due to centre's politices of controlling sutlej waters which has led to insurgency already and may yet again. It almost seems suicidal..